Mirabilis (company)
Mirabilis was an Israeli company that developed the ICQ instant messaging program, an early example of real-time communication over the Internet.[1] Mirabilis was founded in July 1996 by Arik Vardi, Yair Goldfinger, Sefi Vigiser and Amnon Amir.[2] Goldfinger, Visiger, Vardi and Amir met while working for a Tel Aviv software company, Zapa Digital Arts, that specialized in three-dimensional graphic tools for the Internet.[3] Mirabilis was established in a small apartment in San Jose, California, where Internet access was cheaper.This established a powerful network effect as prospective users strongly preferred the system where their friends were likely to be.